Day 1 -- The Hills are Killing Me
Hi Y'all!
Okay, that's not a very upbeat headline, is it? My one commitment for this trip, though, is to be completely honest as I write this blog.
The morning was great, and started with an early morning ride to the jumping off point in St. Joseph. Susan Montee (Missouri's State Auditor -- the best auditor in the country, with close competition from Minnesota's Rebecca Otto, with whom I am desperately in love, even though we have never met) hosted a small gathering, which was attended by some St. Joseph friends (special shout-out to Jim & June Potts and Jason Park!), as well as Ken Newton from the St. Joseph News-Press and Norman from KQ2-TV.
Ken wrote a great column about the ride in today's paper -- http://www.stjoenews-press.com/main.asp?SectionID=81&SubSectionID=329&ArticleID=96579&TM=27321.81. If you are reading this, thanks, Ken. I felt like you did and excellent job of capturing the personality and purpose of the trip.
John Combest (www.JohnCombest.com) also posted a link to this blog, and I had way more visitors than ever before. Thanks to you, too, John. I appreciate both you and Ken recognizing that this trip has value to folks.
The short story about today's ride is that it was incredibly tough, and shorter than I would have liked. It turns out that the back-road route from St. Joseph to Kansas City is INCREDIBLY hilly. It was far worse than any terrain I've encountered during training. I made it 25.4 miles today and called it a day.
Fortunately, I only have about 15-20 miles left before I can get on the Katy trail (which is mostly flat, all across the state of Missouri). So tomorow I'm going to start early -- by 5:00 a.m. at the latest -- and knock out those last tough miles.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks for reading!
- sean
Sean Spence
MS Advocate
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
seanspence@earthlink.net
Okay, that's not a very upbeat headline, is it? My one commitment for this trip, though, is to be completely honest as I write this blog.
The morning was great, and started with an early morning ride to the jumping off point in St. Joseph. Susan Montee (Missouri's State Auditor -- the best auditor in the country, with close competition from Minnesota's Rebecca Otto, with whom I am desperately in love, even though we have never met) hosted a small gathering, which was attended by some St. Joseph friends (special shout-out to Jim & June Potts and Jason Park!), as well as Ken Newton from the St. Joseph News-Press and Norman from KQ2-TV.
Ken wrote a great column about the ride in today's paper -- http://www.stjoenews-press.com/main.asp?SectionID=81&SubSectionID=329&ArticleID=96579&TM=27321.81. If you are reading this, thanks, Ken. I felt like you did and excellent job of capturing the personality and purpose of the trip.
John Combest (www.JohnCombest.com) also posted a link to this blog, and I had way more visitors than ever before. Thanks to you, too, John. I appreciate both you and Ken recognizing that this trip has value to folks.
The short story about today's ride is that it was incredibly tough, and shorter than I would have liked. It turns out that the back-road route from St. Joseph to Kansas City is INCREDIBLY hilly. It was far worse than any terrain I've encountered during training. I made it 25.4 miles today and called it a day.
Fortunately, I only have about 15-20 miles left before I can get on the Katy trail (which is mostly flat, all across the state of Missouri). So tomorow I'm going to start early -- by 5:00 a.m. at the latest -- and knock out those last tough miles.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks for reading!
- sean
Sean Spence
MS Advocate
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
seanspence@earthlink.net
posted by Sean Spence at 4:53 PM
2 Comments:
Hills and wind, the downfall of many of my rides. Just get to that place where you become an engine, slow and steady, and you will get there. I'm really proud of you! You go, guy!
Thanks, Michelle. As you'll see from today's post, the going is already getting much better. Your words certainly ring true. Thanks for your kind thoughts and support.
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